Allergy.  1994 Mar;14(1):42-47.

Effects of Azelastine in the treatment of Patients with Chronic Bronchial Asthma

• Cho SH
• Kim WK
• Yoon HJ
• Min KU
• Kim YY

Abstract

Azelastine is an orally effective and long acting antiallergic agent with bronchodilating effect which has recently been developed for the treatment of bronchial asthma. Its properties have been described as H, receptor blocker, LTC4 and LTD4 inhibitor, serotonin inhibitor, and bradykinin inhibitor, etc. In recent studies, azelastine also has been demonsrated effective in treating the symptoms of allergic rhinitis while producing a low incidence of side effects. As mentioned above, azelastine can be a promising agent in the treatment of patients with chronic bronchial asthma but unfortunately there is few reports on the efficacies of azelastine in the treatment of patients with chronic asthma in Korea. This study is performed to evaluate the effect of azelastine on symptoms, pulmonary function and nonspecific bronchial hyperresponsiveness in the treatment of patients with chronic bronchial asthma. Thirty four patients with mild to moderate asthma, between 19 to 60 years old, were participated in this study and the patients with severe or steroid dependent asthma or with cardiovascular disease or hepatic disease or renal disease were excluded. At the begining of study, we evaluated the baseline values of subjects, which were symptom scores including cough, dyspnea, and number of use of beta2 agonist in a week and PFT such as FEV1, PEFR and PC20-methacholine. After those parameters have been estimated, patients were prescribed with 4 mg azelastine or placebo a day for 4 weeks and then, after a wash-out period for a week, received placebo or 4 mg azelastine a day for 4 weeks. We evaluated the parameters just after placebo period and azelastine period and the results were statistically analyzed by paired t-test. Results were as follows 1) There was a significant improvement in asthmatic symptoms and reduction in the use beta2 agonist after the administration of 4rng azelastine a day for 4 weeks. 2) There was no significant change in FEV1 but a significant increase in PEFR after the administration of 4mg azelastine a day for 4 weeks. 3) No significant change of nonspecific bronchial hyperrespensiveness and few side effects were observed after the administration of 4rag azelastine a day for 4 weeks. These results suggest that azelastine has an effect on symptomatic treatment and improvement of PEFR in patients with chronic bronchial asthma.

MeSH Terms

Asthma*
Bradykinin
Cardiovascular Diseases
Cough
Dyspnea
Humans
Incidence
Korea
Leukotriene C4
Leukotriene D4
Middle Aged
Peak Expiratory Flow Rate
Rhinitis
Serotonin
Bradykinin
Leukotriene C4
Leukotriene D4
Serotonin